Stay on target

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is huge. Not just in terms of hype and importance and sales potential, but just in terms of sheer stuff. The Nintendo Switch mascot fighter features over a hundred stages, nearly a thousand songs, and too many Pokemon and items and Assist Trophies to think of crammed onto a cartridge you can plan on the go or on a TV. When you have as many big franchises as Nintendo, putting them all in one game will make that game is very big boy indeed.

But the biggest, most exciting thing about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is its mind-blowing, heartwarming roster of playable characters. Fighting games pride themselves not just on the strength of their mechanics but the strength of its fighters, especially in a crossover fighters like this. And Super Smash Bros. Ultimate crushes all rivals by including every single playable character from the across the four previous games in the twenty-year-old series. Include the new combatants and so far we have over 70 fighters to wrap our heads around. We’re excited, but we’re also intimidated. So to get ready for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, every day, character by character, we’re creating the ultimate guide to all of its characters. Today’s fighter: Lucas.

Who Are They?

There’s absolutely no shame in being an American gamer who has no clue who Lucas is outside of “blonde Ness from Smash Bros.” Earthbound wasn’t the most popular Super Nintendo game, but at least it got a Western release. However, its 2006 GBA sequel Mother 3 famously has never left Japan, despite over a decade of fan demands. So, legally, if you don’t speak Japanese, Lucas’s tragic tale of technology vs. nature vs. pigs is still a mystery to you.

Smash History

Lucas was a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which released a little less than two years after Mother 3’s Japanese release. Folks thought this meant Ness was getting replaced, but in the end both boys were playable. In Smash Wii U/3DS, initially only Ness returned. But Lucas was later added as DLC. And in Ultimate everyone is here of course.

What Looks New in Ultimate?

In general the way characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tend to be balanced compared to past games is that regardless of a character’s previous tier, their most popular attacks have been weakened while overlooked moves have been powered up. Instead of flattening the character, the goal seems to be encouraging players to make use of their full movesets. So with Lucas, while his threatening psychic throws may be less potent, the rest of his abilities have been improved.